THE  AFRICAN  PROBLEM, 


AND 

THE  METHOD  OF  ITS  SOLUTION 


The  Annual  Discourse  Delivered  at  the  Seventy 
third  Anniversary  of  the  American  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  in  the  Church  of  the  Covenant, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  January  19,  1S90, 


BY 


EDWARD  W.  BLYDEN,  EL.  D. 


Published  by  Request. 


WASHINGTON  : 

Gibson  Bros.,  Printers  and  Bookbinders. 


THE  AFRICAN  PROBLEM. 


Acts  xvi,  9. 

I am  seriously  impressed  with  a sense  of  the  responsi- 
bility of  my  position  to-night.  I stand  in  the  presence  of 
the  representatives  of  that  great  organization  which  seems 
first  of  all  the  associations  in  this  country  to  have  distinctly 
recognized  the  hand  of  God  in  the  history  of  the  Negro 
race  in  America — to  have  caught  something  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Divine  purpose  in  permitting  their  exile  to  and 
bondage  in  this  land.  I stand  also  in  the  presence  of  what, 
for  the  time  being  at  least,  must  be  considered  the  fore- 
most congregation  of  the  land — the  religious  home  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  There  are  present,  also, 
I learn,  on  this  occasion,  some  of  the  statesmen  and  law- 
makers of  the  land. 

My  position,  then,  is  one  of  honor  as  well  as  of  respon- 
sibility, and  the  message  I have  to  deliver,  I venture  to 
think,  concerns  directly  or  indirectly  the  whole  human  race. 
I come  from  that  ancient  country,  the  home  of  one  of  the 
great  original  races,  occupied  by  the  descendants  of  one 
of  the  three  sons  to  whom,  according  to  Biblical  history, 
the  whole  world  was  assigned — a country  which  is  now 
engaging  the  active  attention  of  all  Europe.  I come,  also, 
from  the  ancestral  home  of  at  least  five  millions  in  this 
land.  Two  hundred  millions  of  people  have  sent  me  on 
an  errand  of  invitation  to  their  blood  relations  here. 
Their  cry  is,  “ Come  over  and  help  us.”  And  I find  among 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  invited  an  eager  and  entliu- 


4 


siastic  response.  They  tell  me  to  wave  the  answer  across 
the  deep  to  the  anxious  and  expectant  hearts,  which,  dur- 
ing the  long  and  weary  night  of  separation,  have  been  con- 
stantly watching  and  praying  for  the  return — to  the  Rachels 
weeping  for  their  children,  and  refusing  to  be  comforted 
because  they  are  not — they  tell  me,  “ Wave  the  answer 
back  to  our  brethren  to  hold  the  fort  for  we  are  cbming.” 
They  have  for  the  last  seventy  years  been  returning  through 
the  agency  of  the  Society  whose  anniversary  we  celebrate 
to-night.  Some  have  gone  every  year  during  that  period, 
but  they  have  been  few  compared  to  the  vast  necessity. 
They  have  gone  as  they  have  been  able  to  go,  and  are  mak- 
ing an  impression  for  good  upon  that  continent.  My  sub- 
ject to-night  will  be,  The  Afkican  Phoblem  and  the  Method 
of  its  Solution. 

This  is  no  new  problem.  It  is  nearly  as  old  as  recorded 
history.  It  has  interested  thinking  men  in  Europe  and 
Asia  in  all  ages.  The  imagination  of  the  ancients  peopled 
the  interior  of  that  country  with  a race  of  beings  shut  out 
from  and  needing  no  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  mankind — 
lifted  by  their  purity  and  simplicity  of  character  above 
the  necessity  of  intercourse  with  other  mortals — leading 
a blameless  and  protracted  existence  and  producing  in 
their  sequestered,  beautiful,  and  fertile  home,  from  which 
flowed  the  wonderful  Nile,  the  food  of  the  Gods.  Not 
milk  and  honey  but  nectar  and  ambrosia  were  supposed  to 
abound  there.  The  Greeks  especially  had  very  high  con- 
ceptions of  the  sanctity  and  spirituality  of  the  interior 
Africans.  The  greatest  of  their  poets  picture  the  Gods 
as  vacating  Olympus  every  year  and  proceeding  to  Ethio- 
pia to  be  feasted  by  its  inhabitants.  Indeed,  the  religion 
of  some  portion  of  Greece  is  supposed  to  have  been  in- 
troduced from  Africa.  But  leaving  the  region  of  my- 
thology, we  know  that  the  three  highest  religions  known 


5 


to  mankind — if  they  had  not  their  origin  in  Africa — were 
domiciled  there  in  the  days  of  their  feeble  beginnings, 
Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism. 

A sacred  mystery  hung  over  that  continent,  and  many 
were  the  aspirations  of  philosophers  and  poets  for  some 
definite  knowledge  of  what  was  beyond  the  narrow  fringe 
they  saw.  Julius  Csesar,  fascinated  while  listening  to  a 
tale  of  the  Nile,  lost  the  vision  of  military  glory.  The 
philosopher  overcame  the  soldier  and  he  declared  himself 
ready  to  abandon  for  a time  the  alluring  fields  of  poli- 
tics in  order  to  trace  out  the  sources  of  that  mysterious 
river  which  gave  to  mankind  Egypt  with  her  magnificent 
conceptions  and  splendid  achievements. 

The  mystery  still  remains.  The  problem  continues  un- 
solved. The  conquering  races  of  the  world  stand  perplexed 
and  worried  before  the  difficulties  which  beset  their  enter- 
prise of  reducing  that  continent  to  subjection.  They  have 
overcome  the  whole  of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  From 
Behring  Straits  to  Cape  Horn  America  has  submitted  to 
their  sway.  The  native  races  have  almost  disappeared 
from  the  mainland  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  Europe 
has  extended  her  conquests  to  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and 
the  Archipelagos  of  the  Pacific.  But,  for  hundreds  of 
years,  their  ships  have  passed  by  those  tempting  regions, 
where  “Afric’s  sunny  fountains  roll  down  their  golden 
sands,”  and  though  touching  at  different  points  on  the 
coast,  they  have  been  able  to  acquire  no  extensive  foot- 
hold in  that  country.  Notwithstanding  the  reports  we  re- 
ceive on  every  breeze  that  blows  from  the  East,  of  vast 
“ spheres  of  influence  ” and  large  European  possessions, 
the  points  actually  occupied  by  white  men  in  the  boundless 
equatorial  regions  of  that  immense  continent  may  be  accu- 
rately represented  on  the  map  only  by  microscopic  dots.  I 
wish  that  the  announcements  we  receive  from  time  to  time 


6 


with  such  a flourish  of  trumpets,  that  a genuine  civilization 
is  being  carried  into  the  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent,  were 
true.  But  the  fact  is,  that  the  bulk  of  Central  Africa  is 
being  rapidly  subjected  to  Mohammedanism.  That  system 
will  soon  be — or  rather  is  now — knitting  together  the  con- 
querors and  the  conquered  iuto  a harmonious  whole  ; and 
unless  Europe  gets  a thorough  understanding  of  the  situ- 
ation, the  gates  of  missionary  enterprise  will  be  closed  ; 
because,  from  all  we  can  learn  of  the  proceedings  of  some, 
especially  in  East  Africa,  the  industrial  regime  is  being 
stamped  out  to  foster  the  militant.  The  current  number 
of  the  Fortnightly , near  the  close  of  an  interesting  article 
on  “ Stanley’s  Expedition,”  has  this  striking  sentence  : 
“ Stanley  has  triumphed,  but  Central  Africa  is  darker  than 

• 99 

ever ! 

It  would  appear  that  the  world  outside  of  Africa  has 
not  yet  stopped  to  consider  the  peculiar  conditions  which 
lift  that  continent  out  of  the  range  of  the  ordinary  agencies 
by  which  Europe  has  been  able  to  occupy  other  countries 
and  subjugate  or  exterminate  their  inhabitants. 

They  have  not  stopped  to  ponder  the  providential  les- 
sons on  this  subject  scattered  through  the  pages  of  history, 
both  past  and  contemporary. 

First.  Let  us  take  the  most  obvious  lesson  as  indicated 
in  the  climatic  conditions.  Perhaps  in  no  country  in  the 
world  is  it  so  necessary  (as  in  Africa)  that  the  stranger  or 
new  comer  should  possess  the  mens  Sana  in  corpora  sano — 
the  sound  mind  in  sound  body ; for  the  climate  is  most 
searching,  bringing  to  the  surface  any  and  every  latent 
physical  or  mental  defect.  If  a man  has  any  chronic  or 
hereditary  disease  it  is  sure  to  be  developed,  and  if  wrong 
medical  treatment  is  applied  it  is  very  apt  to  be  exaggerated 
and  often  to  prove  fatal  to  the  patient.  And  as  with  the 
body  so  with  the  mind.  Persons  of  weak  minds,  either 


7 


inherited  or  brought  on  by  excessive  mental  application 
or  troubles  of  any  kind,  are  almost  sure  to  develop  an  im- 
patience or  irritability,  to  the  surprise  and  annoyance  of 
their  friends  who  knew  them  at  home.  The  Negro  immi- 
grant from  a temperate  region  sometimes  suffers  from  these 
climatic  inconveniences,  only  in  his  case,  after  a brief  pro- 
cess of  acclimatization,  he  becomes  himself  again,  while 
the  white  man  never  regains  his  soundness  in  that  climate, 
and  can  retain  his  mental  equilibrium  only  by  periodical 
visits  to  his  native  climate.  The  regulation  of  the  British 
Government  for  West  Africa  is  that  their  officials  are 
allowed  six  months’  leave  of  absence  to  return  to  Europe 
after  fifteen  month’s  residence  at  Sierra  Leone  and  twelve 
months  on  the  Gold  Coast  or  Lagos ; and  for  every  three 
days  during  which  they  are  kept  on  the  coast  after  the 
time  for  their  leave  arrives,  they  are  allowed  one  day  in 
Europe.  The  neglect  of  this  regulation  is  often  attended 
with  most  serious  consequences. 

Second.  When  we  come  into  the  moral  and  intellectual 
world  it  would  seem  as  if  the  Almighty  several  times  at- 
tempted to  introduce  the  foreigner  and  a foreign  civiliza- 
tion into  Africa  and  then  changed  his  purpose.  The 
Scriptures  seem  to  warrant  the  idea  that  in  some  way  in- 
explicable to  us,  and  incompatible  with  our  conception  of 
the  character  of  the  Sovereign  of  the  Universe,  the  un- 
changeable Being  sometimes  reverses  His  apparent  plans. 
We  read  that,  “it  repented  God,”  &c.  For  thousands  of 
years  the  northeastern  portion  of  Africa  witnessed  a won- 
derful development  of  civilization.  The  arts  and  sciences 
flourished  in  Egypt  for  generations,  and  that  country  was 
the  centre  of  almost  universal  influence  ; but  there  was  no 
effect  produced  upon  the  interior  of  Africa.  So  North 
Africa  became  the  seat  of  a great  military  and  commercial 
power  which  flourished  for  700  years.  After  this  the  Ro- 


8 


man  Catholic  Clmrcli  constructed  a mighty  influence  in 
the  same  region,  but  the  interior  of  the  continent  received 
no  impression  from  it. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  Congo  country,  of  which  we 
now  hear  so  much,  was  the  scene  of  extensive  operations 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Just  a little  before  the 
discovery  of  America  thousands  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo, 
including  the  most  influential  families,  were  baptized  by 
Catholic  missionaries ; and  the  Portuguese,  for  a hundred 
years,  devoted  themselves  to  the  work  of  African  evangel- 
ization and  exploration.  It  would  appear  that  they  knew 
just  as  much  of  interior  Africa  as  is  known  now  after  the 
great  exjfloits  of  Speke  and  Grant  and  Livingstone,  Baker 
and  Cameron  and  Stanley.  It  is  said  that  there  is  a map 
in  the  Vatican,  three  hundred  years  old,  which  gives  all 
the  general  physical  relief  and  the  river  and  lake  systems 
of  Africa  with  more  or  less  accuracy ; but  the  Arab  geog- 
raphers of  a century  before  had  described  the  mountain 
system,  the  great  lakes,  and  the  course  of  the  Nile. 

Just  about  the  time  that  Portugal  was  on  the  way  to 
establish  a great  empire  on  that  continent,  based  upon  the 
religious  system  of  Rome,  America  was  discovered,  and, 
instead  of  the  Congo,  the  Amazon  became  the  seat  of  Port- 
uguese power.  Neither  Egyptian,  Carthaginian,  Persian, 
or  Roman  influence  was  allowed  to  establish  itself  on  that 
continent.  It  would  seem  that  in  the  providential  purpose 
no  solution  of  the  African  problem  was  to  come  from  alien 
sources.  Africans  were  not  doomed  to  share  the  fate  of 
some  other  dark  races  who  have  come  in  contact  with  the 
aggressive  European.  Europe  was  diverted  to  the  Western 
Hemisphere.  The  energies  of  that  conquering  race,  it  was 
decreed,  should  be  spent  in  building  up  a home  for  them- 
selves on  this  side.  Africa  followed  in  chains. 


9 


The  Negro  race  was  to  be  preserved  for  a special  and 
important  work  in  the  future.  Of  the  precise  nature  of 
that  work  no  one  can  form  any  definite  conception.  It  is 
probable  that  if  foreign  races  had  been  allowed  to  enter 
their  country  they  would  have  been  destroyed.  So  they 
were  brought  over  to  be  helpers  in  this  country  and  at 
the  same  time  to  be  preserved.  It  was  not  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  the  world  that  a people  have  been  pre- 
served by  subjection  to  another  people.  We  know  that 
God  promised  Abraham  that  his  seed  should  inherit  the 
land  of  Canaan ; but  when  He  saw  that  in  their  numer- 
ically weak  condition  they  would  have  been  destroyed  in 
conflicts  with  the  indigenous  inhabitants,  he  took  them 
down  to  Egypt  and  kept  them  there  in  bondage  four  hun- 
dred year's  that  they  might  be  fitted,  both  by  discipline 
and  numerical  increase,  for  the  work  that  would  devolve 
upon  them.  Slavery  would  seem  to  be  a strange  school 
in  which  to  preserve  a people ; but  God  has  a way  of 
salting  as  well  as  purifying  by  fire. 

The  Europeans,  who  were  fleeing  from  their  own  coun- 
try in  search  of  wider  areas  of  freedom  and  larger  scope 
for  development,  found  here  an  aboriginal  race  unable  to 
co-operate  with  them  in  the  labors  required  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  material  framework  of  the  new  civiliza- 
tion. The  Indians  would  not  work,  and  they  have  suffered 
the  consequences  of  that  indisposition.  They  have  passed 
away.  To  take  their  place  as  accessories  in  the  work  to 
be  done  God  suffered  the  African  to  be  brought  hither, 
who  could  work  and  would  work,  and  could  endure  the 
climatic  conditions  of  a new  southern  country,  which  Eu- 
ropeans could  not.  Two  currents  set  across  the  Atlantic 
towards  the  west  for  nigh  three  hundred  years — the  one 
from  Europe,  the  other  from  Africa.  The  one  from  Africa 
had  a crimson  color.  From  that  stream  of  human  beings 


10 


millions  fell  victims  to  the  cruelties  of  the  middle  passage, 
and  otherwise  suffered  from  the  brutal  instincts  of  their 
kidnappers  and  enslavers.  I do  not  know  whether  Africa 
has  been  invited  to  the  celebration  of  the  fourth  centenary 
of  the  discover}’  of  America ; but  she  has  quite  as  much 
reason,  if  not  as  much  right,  to  participate  in  the  demon- 
stration of  that  occasion  as  the  European  nations.  En- 
glishman, Hollander,  and  Huguenot,  Nigritian  and  Congo 
came  together.  If  Europe  brought  the  head,  Africa  fur- 
nished the  hands  for  a great  portion  of  the  work  which 
has  been  achieved  here,  though  it  was  the  opinion  of  an 
African  chief  that  the  man  who  disccfvered  America  ought 
to  have  been  imprisoned  for  having  uncovered  one  people 
for  destruction  and  opened  a field  for  the  oppression  and 
suffering  of  another. 

But  when  the  new  continent  was  opened  Africa  was 
closed.  The  veil,  which  was  being  drawn  aside,  was  re- 
placed, and  darkness  once  more  enveloped  the  land,  for 
then  not  the  country  but  the  j)eople  were  needed.  They 
were  to  do  a work  elsewhere,  and  meanwhile  their  country 
was  to  be  shut  out  from  the  view  of  the  outside  world. 

The  first  Africans  landed  in  this  country  in  the  State  of 
Virginia  in  the  year  1619.  Then  began  the  first  phase  of 
what  is  called  the  Negro  problem.  These  people  did  not 
come  hither  of  their  own  accord.  Theirs  was  not  a volun- 
tary but  a compulsory  expatriation.  The  problem,  then,  on 
their  arrival  in  this  country,  which  confronted  the  white 
people  was  how  to  reduce  to  effective  and  profitable  servi- 
tude an  alien  race  which  it  was  neither  possible  nor  de- 
sirable to  assimilate.  This  gave  birth  to  that  peculiar  in- 
stitution, established  in  a country  whose  raison  d'etre  was 
that  all  men  might  enjoy  the  “ right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.”  Laws  had  to  be  enacted  by  Puri- 
tans, Cavaliers,  and  Roundheads  for  slaves,  and  every  con- 


11 


trivance  had  to  be  devised  for  the  safety  of  the  institution. 
It  was  a difficult  problem,  in  the  effort  to  solve  which  both 
master  and  slave  suffered. 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  in  the  first  years  of  African 
slavery  in  this  country,  the  masters  upon  many  of  whom 
the  relationship  was  forced,  understood  its  providential 
origin  and  purpose,  until  after  a while,  avarice  and  greed 
darkened  their  perceptions,  and  they  began  to  invent 
reasons,  drawn  even  from  the  Word  of  God,  to  justify  their 
holding  these  people  in  perpetual  bondage  for  the  advan- 
tage of  themselves  and  their  children  forever.  But  even 
after  a blinding  cupidity  had  captured  the  generality  by 
its  bewitching  spell,  there  were  those  (far-sighted  men,  es- 
pecially after  the  yoke  of  Great  Britain  had  been  thrown 
off)  who  saw  that  the  -abnormal  relation  could  not  be  per- 
manent under  the  democratic  conditions  established  by 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  land.  It  was  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, the  writer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  who 
made  the  celebrated  utterance  : “ Nothing  is  more  clearly 
written  in  the  Book  of  Destiny  than  the  emancipation  of 
the  blacks  ; and  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  two  races 
will  never  live  in  a state  of  equal  freedom  under  the  same 
Government,  so  insurmountable  are  the  barriers  which 
nature,  habit,  and  opinion  have  established  between  them.” 

For  many  years,  especially  in  the  long  and  weary  period 
of  the  anti-slavery  conflict,  the  latter  part  of  this  dictum 
of  Jefferson  was  denounced  by  many  good  and  earnest 
men.  The  most  intelligent  of  the  colored  people  resented 
it  as  a prejudiced  and  anti-Christian  conception.  But  as 
the  years  go  by  and  the  Negroes  rise  in  education  and 
culture,  and  therefore  in  love  and  pride  of  race,  and  in 
proper  conception  of  race  gifts,  race  work  and  race  des- 
tiny, the  latter  clause  of  that  famous  sentence  is  not  only 
being  shorn  of  its  obscurity  and  repulsiveness,  but  is  being 


12 


welcomed  as  embodying  a truth  indispensable  to  the  pres- 
ervation and  prosperity  of  both  races,  and  as  pointing  to 
the  regeneration  of  the  African  Fatherland.  There  are 
some  others  of  the  race  who,  recognizing  Jefferson’s  prin- 
ciple, would  make  the  races  one  by  amalgamation. 

It  was  under  the  conviction  of  the  truth  expressed  by 
that  statesman  that  certain  gentlemen  of  all  political  shades 
and  differing  religious  views,  met  together  in  this  city 
in  the  winter  of  1816-T7,  and  organized  the  American 
Colonization  Society.  Though  friendly  to  the  anti-slavery 
idea,  and  anxious  for  the  extinction  of  the  abnormal  in- 
stitution, these  men  did  not  make  their  views  on  that  sub- 
ject prominent  in  their  published  utterances.  They  were 
not  Abolitionists  in  the  political  or  technical  sense  of  that 
phrase.  But  their  labors  furnished  an  outlet  and  en- 
couragement for  persons  desiring  to  free  their  slaves,  giv- 
ing them  the  assurance  that  their  freedmen  would  be  re- 
turned to  their  Fatherland,  carrying  thither  what  light 
of  Christianity  and  civilization  they  had  received.  It 
seems  a pity  that  this  humane,  philanthropic,  and  far- 
seeing  work  should  have  met  with  organized  opposition 
from  another  band  of  philanthropists,  who,  anxious  for  a 
speedy  deliverance  of  the  captives,  thought  they  saw  in 
the  Colonization  Society  an  agency  for  riveting  instead  of 
breaking  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  and  they  denounced  it 
with  all  the  earnestness  and  eloquence  they  could  com- 
mand, and  they  commanded,  both  among  whites  and 
blacks,  some  of  the  finest  orators  the  country  has  ever 
produced.  And  they  did  a grand  work,  both  directly  and 
indirectly,  for  the  Negro  and  for  Africa.  They  did  their 
work  and  dissolved  their  organization.  But  when  their 
work  was  done  the  work  of  the  Colonization  Society  really 
began. 


L3 


In  the  development  of  the  Negro  question  in  this  coun- 
try the  colonizationists  might  be  called  the  prophets  and 
philosophers ; the  abolitionists,  the  warriors  and  politi- 
cians. Colonizationists  saw  what  was  coming  and  patiently 
prepared  for  its  advent.  Abolitionists  attacked  the  first 
phase  of  the  Negro  problem  and  labored  for  its  immediate 
solution  ; colonizationists  looked  to  the  last  phase  of  the 
problem  and  labored  to  get  both  the  whites  and  blacks 
ready  for  it.  They  labored  on  two  continents,  in  America 
and  in  Africa.  Had  they  not  begun  as  early  as  they  did 
to  take  up  lands  in  Africa  for  the  exiles,  had  they  waited 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  it  would  now  have  been  impos- 
sible to  obtain  a foothold  in  their  fatherland  for  the  return- 
ing hosts.  The  colonizationist,  as  prophet,  looked  at  the 
State  as  it  would  be  ; the  abolitionist,  as  politician,  looked 
at  the  State  as  it  was.  The  politician  sees  the  present 
and  is  possessed  by  it.  The  prophet  sees  the  future  and 
gathers  inspiration  from  it.  The  politician  may  influence 
legislation  ; the  prophet,  although  exercising  great  moral 
influence,  seldom  has  any  legislative  power.  The  agitation 
of  the  politician  may  soon  culminate  in  legal  enactments  ; 
the  teachings  of  the  prophet  may  require  generations  be- 
fore they  find  embodiment  in  action.  The  politician  has 
to-day ; the  prophet,  to-morrow. . The  politician  deals 
with  facts,  the  prophet  with  ideas,  and  ideas  take  root  very 
slowly.  Though  nearly  three  generations  have  passed 
away  since  Jefferson  made  his  utterance,  and  more  than 
two  since  the  organization  of  the  Colonization  Society,  yet 
the  conceptions  they  put  forward  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  gained  maturity,  much  less  currency,  in  the  public 
mind.  But  the  recent  discussions  in  the  halls  of  Congress 
show  that  the  teachings  of  the  prophet  are  now  beginning 
to  take  hold  of  the  politician.  It  may  take  many  years  yet 
before  the  people  come  up  to  these  views,  and,  therefore, 


14 


before  legislation  upon  them  may  be  possible,  but  there  is 
evidently  movement  in  that  direction. 

The  first  phase  of  the  Negro  problem  was  solved  at  Appo- 
mattox, after  the  battle  of  the  warrior,  with  confused  noise 
and  garments  rolled  in  blood.  The  institution  of  slavery, 
for  which  so  many  sacrifices  had  been  made,  so  many  of 
the  principles  of  humanity  had  been  violated,  so  many  of 
the  finer  sentiments  of  the  heart  had  been  stifled,  was  at 
last  destroyed  by  violence. 

Now  the  nation  confronts  the  second  phase,  the  educa- 
tional, and  millions  are  being  poured  out  by  State  govern- 
ments and  by  individual  philanthropy  for  the  education  of 
the  freedmen,  preparing  them  for  the  third  and  last  phase 
of  the  problem,  viz  : Emigration. 

In  this  second  phase,  we  have  that  organization,  which 
might  be  called  the  successor  of  the  old  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety, taking  most  active  and  effective  part.  I mean  the 
American  Missionary  Association.  I have  watched  with 
constant  gratitude  and  admiration  the  course  and  opera- 
tions of  that  Society,  especially  when  I remember  that;  or- 
ganized in  the  dark  days  of  slavery,  twenty  years  before 
emancipation,  it  held  aloft  courageously  the  banner  on 
which  was  inscribed  freedom  for  the  Negro  and  no  fel- 
lowship with  his  oppressors.  And  they,  among  the  first, 
went  South  to  lift  the  freedmen  from  the  mental  thraldom 
and  moral  degradation  in  which  slavery  had  left  him. 
They  triumphed  largely  over  the  spirit  of  their  opponents. 
They  braved  the  dislike,  the  contempt,  the  apprehension 
with  which  their  work  was  at  first  regarded,  until  they  suc- 
ceeded by  demonstrating  the  advantages  of  knowledge  over 
ignorance,  to  bring  about  that  state  of  things  to  which  Mr. 
Henry  Grady,  in  his  last  utterances,  was  able  to  refer  with 
such  satisfaction,  viz.,  that  since  the  war  the  South  has 
spent  $122,000,000  in  the  cause  of  public  education,  and 


15 


this  year  it  is  pledged  to  spend  $37,000,000,  in  the  benefits 
of  which  the  Negro  is  a large  participant. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  some  of  those  who,  after  having 
been  engaged  in  the  noble  labors  of  solving  the  first  phase 
of  the  problem — in  the  great  anti-slavery  war — and  are 
now  confronting  the  second  phase,  should  be  unable  to 
receive  with  patience  the  suggestion  of  the  third,  which  is 
the  emigration  phase,  when  the  Negro,  freed  in  body  and 
in  mind,  shall  bid  farewell  to  these  scenes  of  his  bondage 
and  discipline  and  betake  himself  to  the  land  of  his  fathers, 
the  scene  of  larger  opportunities  and  loftier  achievements. 
I say  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  veterans  of  the  past  and 
the  present  should  be  unable  to  give  much  enthusiasm  to 
the  work  of  the  future.  It  is  not  often  given  to  man  to 
labor  successfully  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  wilderness 
and  across  the  Jordan.  Some  of  the  most  effective  work- 
ers, must  often,  with  eyes  undimmed  and  natural  force 
unabated,  lie  down  and  die  on  the  borders  of  full  freedom, 
and  if  they  live,  life  to  them  is  like  a dream.  The  young 
must  take  up  the  work.  To  old  men  the  indications  of  the 
future  are  like  a dream.  Old  men  are  like  them  that 
dream.  Young  men  see  visions.  They  catch  the  spirit  of 
the  future  and  are  able  to  place  themselves  in  accord 
with  it. 

But  things  are  not  yet  ready  for  the  solution  of  the 
third  and  last  phase  of  the  problem.  Things  are  not 
ready  in  this  country  among  whites  or  blacks.  The  in- 
dustrial condition  of  the  South  is  not  prepared  for  it. 
Things  are  not  yet  ready  in  Africa  for  a complete  exodus. 
Europe  is  not  yet  ready  ; she  still  thinks  that  she  can 
take  and  utilize  Africa  for  her  own  purposes.  She  does 
not  yet  understand  that  Africa  is  to  be  for  the  African  or 
for  nobody.  Therefore  she  is  taking  up  with  renewed 
vigor,  and  confronting  again,  with  determination,  the 


16 


African  problem.  Englishmen,  Germans,  Italians,  Bel- 
gians, are  taking  up  territory  and  trying  to  wring  from  the 
grey-haired  mother  of  civilization  tlie  secret  of  the  ages. 
Nothing  has  come  down  from  Egypt  so  grand  and  im- 
pressive as  the  Sphinxes  that  look  at  you  with  calm  and 
emotionless  faces,  guarding  their  secret  to-day  as  they 
formerly  guarded  the  holy  temples.  They  are  a symbol  of 
Africa.  She  will  not  be  forced.  She  only  can  reveal  her 
secret.  Her  children  trained  in  the  house  of  bondage 
will  show  it  to  the  world.  Some  have  already  returned 
and  have  constructed  an  independent  nation  as  a begin- 
ning of  this  work  on  her  western  borders. 

It  is  a significant  fact  that  Africa  was  completely  shut 
up  until  the  time  arrived  for  the  emancipation  of  her 
children  in  the  Western  World.  When  Jefferson  and 
Washington  and  Hamilton  and  Patrick  Henry  were  predict- 
ing and  urging  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  Mungo  Park  was 
beginning  that  series  of  explorations  by  English  enterprise 
which  has  just  ended  in  the  expedition  of  Stanley.  Just 
about  the  time  that  England  proclaimed  freedom  through- 
out her  colonies,  the  brothers  Lander  made  the  great  dis- 
cover}7 of  the  mouth  of  the  Niger  ; and  when  Lincoln  issued 
the  immortal  proclamation,  Livingstone  was  unfolding 
to  the  world  that  wonderful  region  which  Stanley  has 
more  fully  revealed  and  which  is  becoming  now  the  scene 
of  the  secular  and  religious  activities  of  Christendom. 
The  King  of  the  Belgians  has  expended  fortunes  recently 
in  opening  the  Congo  and  in  introducing  the  appliances 
of  civilization,  and  by  a singular  coincidence  a bill  has 
been  brought  forward  in  the  U.  S.  Senate  to  assist  the 
emigration  of  Negroes  to  the  Fatherland  just  at  the  time 
when  that  philanthropic  monarch  has  despatched  an  agent 
to  this  country  to  invite  the  co-operation  in  his  great  work 
of  qualified  freedmerr.  This  is  significant. 


17 


What  the  King  of  the  Belgians  has  just  clone  is  an  in- 
dication of  what  other  European  Powers  will  do  when  they 
have  exhausted  themselves  in  costly  experiments  to  utilize 
white  men  as  colonists  in  Africa.  They  will  then  under- 
stand the  purpose  of  the  Almighty  in  having  permitted  the 
exile  and  bondage  of  the  Africans,  and  they  will  see  that 
for  Africa’s  redemption  the  Negro  is  the  chosen  instrument. 
They  will  encourage  the  establishment  and  building  up  of 
such  States  as  Liberia.  They  will  recognize  the  scheme 
of  the  Colonization  Society  as  the  providential  one. 

The  little  nation  which  has  grown  up  on  that  coast  as  a 
result  of  the  efforts  of  this  Society,  is  now  taking  hold  upon 
that  continent  in  a manner  which,  owing  to  inexperience, 
it  coulcl  not  do  in  the  past.  The  Liberians  have  introduced 
a new  article  into  the  commerce  of  the  world — the  Liberian 
coffee.  They  ai’e  pushing  to  the  interior,  clearing  up  the 
forests,  extending  the  culture  of  coffee,  sugar,  cocoa,  and 
other  tropical  articles,  and  are  training  the  aborigines  in 
the  arts  of  civilization  and  in  the  principles  of  Christianity. 
The  Republic  occupies  five  hundred  miles  of  coast  with  an 
elastic  interior.  It  has  a growing  commerce  with  various 
countries  of  Europe  and  America.  No  one  who  has  visited 
that  country  and  has  seen  the  farms  on  the  banks  of  the 
rivers  and  in  the  interior,  the  workshops,  the  schools,  the 
churches,  and  other  elements  and  instruments  of  progress 
will  say  that  the  United  States,  through  Liberia,  is  not 
making  a wholesome  impression  upon  Africa — an  impres- 
sion which,  if  the  members  of  the  American  Congress  un- 
derstood, they  would  not  begrudge  the  money  required  to 
assist  a few  hundred  thousand  to  carry  on  in  that  country 
the  work  so  well  begun.  They  would  gladly  spare  them 
from  the  laboring  element  of  this  great  nation  to  push  for- 
ward the  enterprises  of  civilization  in  their  Fatherland,  and 
to  build  themselves  up  on  the  basis  of  their  race  manhood. 


18 


If  there  is  an  intelligent  Negro  here  to-night  I will  say  to 
him,  let  me  take  you  with  me  in  imagination  to  witness 
the  new  creation  or  development  on  that  distant  shore ; I 
will  not  paiut  you  an  imaginary  picture,  but  will  describe 
an  historical  fact ; I will  tell  you  of  reality.  Going  from  the 
coast,  through  those  depressing  alluvial  plains  which  fringe 
the  eastern  and  western  borders  of  the  continent,  you  reach, 
after  a few  miles’  travel,  the  first  high  or  undulating  coun- 
try, which,  rising  abruptly  from  the  swamps,  enchants  you 
with  its  solidity,  its  fertility,  its  verdure,  its  refreshing  and 
healthful  breezes.  You  go  further,  and  you  stand  upon  a 
higher  elevation  where  the  wind  sings  more  freshly  in  your 
ears,  and  your  heart  beats  fast  as  you  survey  the  continu- 
ous and  unbroken  forests  that  stretch  away  from  your  feet 
to  the  distant  horizon.  The  melancholy  cooing  of  the 
pigeons  in  some  unseen  retreat  or  the  more  entrancing 
music  of  livelier  and  picturesque  songsters  alone  disturb 
the  solemn  and  almost  oppressive  solitude.  You  hear  no 
human  sound  and  see  the  traces  of  no  human  presence. 
You  decline  to  pursue  your  adventurous  journey.  You 
refuse  to  penetrate  the  lonely  forest  that  confronts  you. 
You  return  to  the  coast,  thinking  of  the  long  ages  which 
have  elapsed,  the  seasons  which,  in  their  onward  course, 
have  come  and  gone,  leaving  those  solitudes  undisturbed. 
You  wonder  when  and  how  are  those  vast  wildernesses  to 
be  made  the  scene  of  human  activity  and  to  contribute  to 
human  wants  and  happiness.  Finding  no  answer  to  your 
perplexing  question  you  drop  the  subject  from  your 
thoughts.  After  a few  years — a very  few  it  may  be — 
you  return  to  those  scenes.  To  your  surprise  and  grati- 
fication your  progress  is  no  longer  interrupted  by  the  in- 
convenience of  bridle-paths  and  tangled  vines.  The 
roads  are  open  and  clear.  You  miss  the  troublesome 
creeks  and  drains  which,  on  your  previous  journey, 


19 


harassed  and  fatigued  you.  Bridges  have  been  con- 
structed, and  without  any  of  the  former  weariness  you  find 
yourself  again  on  the  summit,  where  in  loneliness  you  had 
stood  sometime  before.  What  do  you  now  see  ? The 
gigantic  trees  have  disappeared,  houses  have  sprung  up 
on  every  side.  As  far  as  the  eye  can  see  the  roofs  of  com- 
fortable and  homelike  cottages  peep  through  the  wood. 
The  waving  corn  and  rice  and  sugar-cane,  the  graceful  and 
fragrant  coffee  tree,  the  umbrageous  cocoa,  orange,  and 
mango  plum  have  taken  the  place  of  the  former  sturdy 
denizens  of  the  forest.  What  has  brought  about  the 
change  ? The  Negro  emigrant  has  arrived  from  America, 
and,  slender  though  his  facilities  have  been,  has  produced 
these  wonderful  revolutions.  You  look  beyond  and  take 
in  the  foi’ests  that  now  appear  on  the  distant  horizon. 
You  catch  glimpses  of  native  villages  embowered  in  plan- 
tain trees,  and  you  say  these  also  shall  be  brought  under 
civilized  influences,  and  you  feel  yourself  lifted  into  man- 
hood, the  spirit  of  the  teacher  and  guide  and  missionary 
comes  upon  you,  and  you  say,  “ There,  below  me  and  be- 
yond lies  the  world  into  which  I must  go.  There  must  I 
cast  my  lot.  I feel  I have  a message  to  it,  or  a work  in 
it and  the  sense  that  there  are  thousands  dwelling  there, 
some  of  whom  you  may  touch,  some  of  whom  you  may  in- 
fluence, some  of  whom  may  love  you  or  be  loved  by  you, 
thrills  you  with  a strange  joy  and  expectation,  and  it  is  a 
thrill  which  you  can  never  forget ; for  ever  and  anon  it  comes 
upon  you  with  increased  intensity.  In  that  hour  you  are 
born  again.  You  hear  forevermore  the  call  ringing  in 
your  ears,  “ Come  over  and  help  us.” 

These  are  the  visions  that  rise  before  the  Liberian  set- 
tler who  has  turned  away  from  the  coast.  This  is  the  view 
that  exercises  such  an  influence  upon  his  imagination,  and 
gives  such  tone  to  his  character,  making  him  an  inde- 


20 


pendent  and  productive  man  on  tlie  continent  of  his  fath- 
ers. 

As  I have  said,  this  is  no  imaginary  picture,  but  the  em- 
bodiment of  sober  history.  Liberia,  then,  is  a fact,  an  ag- 
gressive and  progressive  fact,  with  a great  deal  in  its  past 
and  everything  in  its  future  that  is  inspiring  and  uplifting. 

It  occupies  one  of  the  most  charming  countries  in  the 
western  portion  of  that  continent.  It  lias  been  called  by 
qualified  judges  the  garden  spot  of  West  Africa.  I love 
to  dwell  upon  the  memories  of  scenes  which  I have  passed 
through  in  the  interior  of  that  land.  I have  read  of  coun- 
tries which  I have  not  visited — the  grandeur  of  the  Kocky 
Mountains  and  the  charms  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  and 
my  imagination  adds  to  the  written  description  and  be- 
comes a gallery  of  delightful  pictures.  But  of  African 
scenes  1113’  memory  is  a treasure-house  in  which  I delight 
to  revel.  I have  distinctly  before  me  the  days  and  dates 
when  I came  into  contact  with  their  inexhaustible  beau- 
ties. Leaving  the  coast  line,  the  seat  of  malaria,  and  where 
are  often  seen  the  remains  of  the  slaver’s  barracoons,  which 
always  give  an  impression  of  the  deepest  melancholy,  I 
come  to  the  high  table-lands  with  their  mountain  scenery 
and  lovely  valleys,  their  meadow  streams  and  mountain 
rivulets,  and  there  amid  the  glories  of  a changeless  and 
unchanging  nature,  I have  taken  off  my  shoes  and  on  that 
consecrated  ground  adored  the  God  and  Father  of  the  Af- 
ricans. 

This  is  the  country  and  this  is  the  work  to  which  the 
American  Negro  is  invited.  This  is  the  opening  for  him 
which,  through  the  labors  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society,  has  been  effected.  This  organization  is  more  than 
a colonization  societ}',  more  than  an  emigration  society. 
It  might  with  equal  propriety  and  perhaps  with  greater 
accuracy  be  called  the  African  Repatriation  Societ}7 ; or 


21 


since  the  idea  of  planting  towns  and  introducing  extensive 
cultivation  of  the  soil  is  included  in  its  work,  it  might  he 
called  the  African  Repatriation  and  Colonization  Society, 
for  then  you  bring  in  a somewhat  higher  idea  than  mere 
colonization — the  mere  settling  of  a new  country  by 
strangers — you  bring  in  the  idea  of  restoration,  of  com- 
pensation to  a race  and  country  much  and  long  wronged. 

Colonizationists,  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said 
against  them,  have  always  recognized  the  manhood  of  the 
Negro  and  been  willing  to  trust  him  to  take  care  of  him- 
self. They  have  always  recognized  the  inscrutable  provi- 
dence by  which  the  African  was  brought  to  these  shores. 
They  have  always  taught  that  he  was  brought  hither  to 
be  trained  out  of  his  sense  of  irresponsibility  to  a knowl- 
edge of  his  place  as  a factor  in  the  great  work  of  human- 
ity ; and  that  after  having  been  thus  trained  he  could  find 
his  proper  sphere  of  action  only  in  the  land  of  his  origin 
to  make  a way  for  himself.  They  have  believed  that  it 
has  not  been  given  to  the  white  man  to  fix  the  intellectual 
or  spiritual  status  of  this  race.  They  have  recognized 
that  the  universe  is  wide  enough  and  God’s  gifts  are  varied 
enough  to  allow  the  man  of  Africa  to  find  out  a path  of 
his  own  within  the  circle  of  genuine  human  interests,  and 
to  contribute  from  the  field  of  his  particular  enterprise  to 
the  resources — material,  intellectual,  and  moral- — of  the 
great  human  family. 

But  will  the  Negro  go  to  do  this  work  ? 

Is  he  willing  to  separate  himself  from  a settled  civiliza- 
tion which  he  has  helped  to  build  up  to  betake  himself  to  the 
wilderness  of  his  ancestral  home  and  begin  anew  a career 
on  his  own  responsibility  ? 

I believe  that  he  is.  And  if  suitable  provision  were 
made  for  their  departure  to-morrow  hundreds  of  thousands 
would  avail  themselves  of  it.  The  African  question,  or  the 


22 


Negro  problem,  is  upon  the  country,  and  it  can  no  more  be 
ignored  than  any  other  vital  interest.  The  chief  reason,  it 
appears  to  me,  why  it  is  not  more  seriously  dealt  with  is 
because  the  pressure  of  commercial  and  political  exigencies 
does  not  allow  time  and  leisure  to  the  stronger  and  richer 
elements  of  the  nation  to  study  it.  It  is  not  a question  of 
color  simply — that  is  a superficial  accident.  It  lies  deeper 
than  color.  It  is  a question  of  race,  which  is  the  out- 
come not  onty  of  climate,  but  of  generations  subjected  to 
environments  which  have  formed  the  mental  and  moral 
constitution. 

It  is  a question  in  which  two  distinct  races  are  con- 
cerned. This  is  not  a question  then  purely  of  reason. 
It  is  a question  also  of  instinct.  Races  feel ; observers 
theorize. 

The  work  to  be  done  beyond  the  seas  is  not  to  be  a re- 
production of  what  we  see  in  this  country.  It  requires, 
therefore,  distinct  race  perception  and  entire  race  devotion. 
It  is  not  to  be  the  healing  up  of  an  old  sore,  but  the  un- 
folding of  a new  bud,  an  evolution  ; the  development  of 
a new  side  of  God’s  character  and  a new  phase  of  humanity. 
God  said  to  Moses,  “ I am  that  I am  ; ” or,  more  exactly, 
“ I shall  be  that  I shall  be.”  Each  race  sees  from  its  own 
standpoint  a different  side  of  the  Almighty.  The  Hebrews 
could  not  see  or  serve  God  in  the  land  of  the  Egyptians ; 
no  more  can  the  Negro  under  the  Anglo-Saxon.  He  can 
serve  vain  here.  He  can  furnish  the  labor  of  the  country, 
but  to  the  inspiration  of  the  country  he  must  ever  be  an 
alien. 

In  that  wonderful  sermon  of  St.  Paul  on  Mars  Hill  in 
which  he  declared  that  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth  and 
hath  determined  the  bounds  of  their  habitation,  he  also 
said,  “ In  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.” 


i 


23 


s' 

Now  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  in  the  types  and  races 
which  have  already  displayed  themselves  God  has  ex- 
hausted himself.  It  is  by  God  in  us,  where  we  have 
freedom  to  act  out  ourselves,  that  we  do  each  our  several 
work  and  live  out  into  action,  through  our  work,  whatever 
we  have  within  us  of  noble  and  wise  and  true.  What  we 
do  is,  if  we  are  able  to  be  true  to  our  nature,  the  repre- 
sentation of  some  phase  of  the  Infinite  Being.  If  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being  in  Him,  God  also  lives,  and 
moves  and  has  His  being  in  us.  This  is  why  slavery  of 
any  kind  is  an  outrage.  It  spoils  the  image  of  God  as  it 
strives  to  express  itself  through  the  individual  or  the  race. 
As  in  the  Kingdom  of  Nature,  we  see  in  her  great  organic 
types  of  being,  in  the  movement,  changes,  and  order  of  the 
elements,  those  vast  thoughts  of  God,  so  in  the  great  types 
of  man,  in  the  various  races  of  the  world,  as  distinct  in 
character  as  in  work,  in  the  great  divisions  of  character, 
we  see  the  will  and  character  and  consciousness  of  God 
disclosed  to  us.  According  to  this  truth  a distinct  phase 
of  God’s  character  is  set  forth  to  be  wrought  out  into  per- 
fection in  every  separate  character.  As  in  every  form  of 
the  inorganic  universe  we  see  some  noble  variation  of 
God’s  thought  and  beauty,  so  in  each  separate  man,  in 
each  separate  race,  something  of  the  absolute  is  incarnated. 
The  whole  of  mankind  is  a vast  representation  of  the 
Deity.  Therefore  we  cannot  extinguish  any  race  either  by 
conflict  or  amalgamation  without  serious  responsibility. 

You  can  easily  see  then  why  one  race  overshadowed  by 
another  should  long  to  express  itself — should  yearn  for 
the  opportunity  to  let  out  the  divinity  that  stirs  within  it. 
This  is  why  the  Hebrews  cried  to  God  from  the  depths  of 
their  affliction  in  Egypt,  and  this  is  why  thousands  and 
thousands  of  Negroes  in  the  South  are  longing  to  go  to 
the  land  of  their  fathers.  They  are  not  content  to  remain 


24 


•where  everything  has  been  done  on  the  line  of  another 
race.  They  long  for  the  scenes  where  everything  is  to  be 
done  under  the  influence  of  a new  racial  spirit,  under 
the  impulse  of  new  skies  and  the  inspiration  of  a fresh 
development.  Only  those  are  tit  for  this  new  work  who 
believe  in  the  race — have  faith  in  its  future — a prophetic 
insight  into  its  destiny  from  a consciousness  of  its  possi- 
bilities. The  inspiration  of  the  race  is  in  the  race. 

Only  one  race  has  furnished  the  prophets  for  humanity — 
the  Hebrew  race ; and  before  they  were  qualified  to  do 
this  they  had  to  go  down  to  the  depths  of  servile  degrada- 
tion. Only  to  them  were  revealed  those  broad  and  preg- 
nant principles  upon  which  every  race  can  stand  and  work 
and  grow  ; but  for  the  special  work  of  each  race  the  proph- 
ets arise  among  the  people  themselves. 

What  is  pathetic  about  the  situation  is,  that  numbers 
among  whites  and  blacks  are  disposed  to  ignore  the  seri- 
ousness and  importance  of  the  question.  They  seem  to 
think  it  a question  for  political  manipulation  and  to  be 
dealt  with  by  partisan  statesmanship,  not  recognizing  the 
fact  that  the  whole  country  is  concerned.  I freely  admit 
the  fact,  to  which  attention  has  been  recently  called,  that 
there  are  many  Afro-Americans  who  have  no  more  to 
do  with  Africa  than  with  Iceland,  but  this  does  not 
destroy  the  truth  that  there  are  millions  whose  life  is 
bound  up  with  that  continent.  It  is  to  them  that  the  mes- 
sage comes  from  their  brethren  across  the  deep,  “Come 
over  and  help  us.” 


